“Nay, I will wait here,” Rosemund said. “He promised he would come to us for Christmas.” Her voice quavered a little.
Kivrin held her lantern up. Rosemund wasn’t crying, but her cheeks were red. Kivrin wondered what Sir Bloet had done now that had Rosemund hiding from him. Or perhaps it was the monk who had frightened her, or the drunken clerk.
Kivrin took her arm. “You can wait as well in the kitchen, and it is warm there,” she said.
Rosemund nodded. “My father promised he would come without fail.”
And do what? Kivrin wondered. Throw out the churchmen? Call off Rosemund’s engagement to Sir Bloet? “My father would never allow me to come to harm,” she had told Kivrin, but he was scarcely in a position to cancel the betrothal when the marriage settlement had already been signed, to alienate Sir Bloet, who had “many powerful friends.”
Kivrin took Rosemund into the kitchen and told Maisry to heat a cup of wine for her. “I’ll go tell Gawyn to come get you as soon as your father comes,” she said, and went across to the stable, but Gawyn wasn’t there, or in the brewhouse.
She went into the house, wondering if Imeyne had sent him on yet another of her errands. But she was sitting beside the obviously unwillingly wakened envoy, talking determinedly to him, and Gawyn was by the fire, surrounded by Sir Bloet’s men, including the two who had come out of the privy. Sir Bloet sat on the near side of the hearth with his sister-in-law and Eliwys.
Kivrin sank down on the beggar’s bench by the screens. There was no way to even get near him, let alone ask him about the drop.
“Give him to me!” Agnes wailed. She and the rest of the children were over by the stairs to the bower, and the little boys were passing Blackie among them, petting him and playing with his ears. Agnes must have gone out to the stable to fetch the puppy while Kivrin was out in the barn.
“He’s
Kivrin stood up.
“As I was riding through the woods, I came upon a maiden,” Gawyn said loudly. “She had been set upon by thieves and was sore wounded, her head cut open and bleeding grievously.”
Kivrin hesitated, glancing toward Agnes, who was pounding on the little boy’s arm, and then sat down again.
“‘Fair maid,’ I said. ‘Who has done this fell thing?’ but she could not speak for her injuries.”
Agnes had the puppy back and was clutching it to her. Kivrin should go rescue the poor thing, but she stayed where she was, moving a little so she could see past the sister-in-law’s coif. Tell them where you found me, she willed Gawyn. Tell them where in the woods.
“‘I am your liegeman and will find these evil knaves,’ I said, ‘but I fear to leave you in such sad plight,’” he said, looking toward Eliwys, “but she had recovered herself and she begged me to go and find those who had harmed her.”
Eliwys stood up and walked to the door. She stood there for a moment, looking anxious, and then came and sat back down.
“No!” Agnes shrieked. One of Sir Bloet’s redheaded nephews had Blackie now and was holding him above his head in one hand. If Kivrin didn’t rescue it soon, they’d squeeze the poor dog to death, and there was no point in listening to any more of the Rescue of the Maiden in the Wood, which was obviously intended not to tell what had happened but to impress Eliwys. She walked over to the children.
“The robbers had not been long gone, and I found their trail with ease and followed it, spurring my steed after them.”
Sir Bloet’s nephew was dangling Blackie by his front legs, and the puppy was whimpering pathetically.
“Kivrin!” Agnes cried, catching sight of her, and flung herself at Kivrin’s legs. Sir Bloet’s nephew immediately handed Kivrin the puppy and backed away, and the rest of the children scattered.
“You rescued Blackie!” Agnes said, reaching for him.
Kivrin shook her head. “It is time to go to bed,” she said.
“I’m
“Blackie is tired,” Kivrin said, squatting down beside Agnes, “and he won’t go to bed unless you will lie down with him.”
That argument seemed to interest her, and before she could find a flaw in it, Kivrin handed Blackie back to her, placing him in her arms like a baby, and scooped them both up in her arms. “Blackie would have you tell him a story,” Kivrin said, starting for the door.
“Soon I found myself in a place that I knew not,” Gawyn said, “a dark forest.”
Kivrin carried her charges outside and across the courtyard. “Blackie likes stories about cats,” Agnes said, rocking the puppy gently in her arms.
“You must tell him a story about a cat then,” Kivrin said. She took the puppy while Agnes climbed up the ladder to the loft. It was already asleep, worn out from all the handling. Kivrin laid it in the straw next to the pallet.
“A wicked cat,” Agnes said, grabbing him up again. “I am not going to sleep. I am only lying down with Blackie, so I need not take off my clothes.”
